Overnight ovarian tissue transportation for centralized cryobanking: a feasible option

Abstract

Research question

Is overnight transportation of ovarian tissue before cryopreservation in a centralized cryobank from the FertiPROTEKT network feasible?

Design

Data from 1810 women with cryopreserved ovarian tissue after overnight transportation from December 2000 to December 2017 were analysed with a focus on transportation, tissue activity parameters and pregnancy, and delivery rates after transplantation.

Results

A total of 92.4% of tissue samples arrived at ideal temperatures of 2–8°C, 0.4% were transported at temperatures lower than ideal and 6.4% were transported at temperatures that were too high, generally due to mishandling of the inlayed cool packs of the transportation boxes. In 62 women, 78 tissue transplantations were carried out. A subgroup of 30 women who underwent a single orthotopic transplantation with fulfilled criteria of a complete follow-up after transplantation until the end of study, a premature ovarian insufficiency after gonadotoxic therapy as well as the absence of pelvic radiation, was further analysed. In this group, transplantations into a peritoneal pocket accounted for 90%. Transplants were still active at 1 year and above after transplantation in 93.3%. Pregnancy and delivery rates were 46.7% and 43.3%, respectively, with one ongoing pregnancy at the end of the study.

Conclusions

Overnight transportation for central cryobanking is a feasible concept that results in high reproducible success rates through standardized professional tissue freezing and storage.